Hide.me

When it comes to VPN server locations, Hide.me’s offering is pretty limited. Though it has 1,400 servers in its network, they are only located in 35 countries throughout the globe, which is below what we would expect of a top tier VPN service. If you need a VPN that offers more options, you will have to consider other services.

For instance, Hide.me offers coverage in only one location in the whole of South America – Sao Paulo in Brazil. This is the same for Africa, with Morocco’s Marrakesh the only option.

Server coverage in Europe is as good as we expect, with city-level locations available in countries like the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, but you would run out of luck if you were out of these locations. Hide.me would do with more city-level options.

Hide.me’s 1500 IP addresses could still prove helpful at busy times to manage congestion. It is possible that the limited number of servers in its network is because Hide.me owns and operates its own server network. this is good news for privacy-conscious internet users.

Hide.me used to be a great choice for users in China, but it has increasingly become unreliable since the government’s crackdown on VPN services. Hide.me’s website, Google Play Store listings and iOS App Store have been blocked by the Chinese government, so users can only download the software from outside China, or use another VPN service that works well in the country.

Hide.me should still work in countries with less intense internet censorship than China, such as Turkey. With its self-managed DNS, Hide.me is able to encrypt your data and prevent interlopers from gaining access to your DNS requests. However, Hide.me’s limited server coverage could still pose a problem even if the VPN successfully bypasses internet censorship. This is because it is very possible that the nearest free-speech country could be far away, which would mean poor internet connections, especially for users in the Middle East.

Hide.me is no longer a reliable option for streaming Netflix and BBC iPlayer. They have no optimized servers for streaming and the two UK servers cannot unblock BBC iPlayer. During our tests, we didn’t find success while trying to access Netflix on any of Hide.me’s US servers. Therefore, it is very unlikely that Hide.me will be able to unblock other streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Sky TV, and Hulu.

Many internet users who subscribe to VPN plans want to be able to access unfiltered content. You can rest assured we’d continue testing Hide.me and will inform you if you find any success in the future. Until then, you may want to consider other VPN options for your streaming needs.

•  Torrenting

Hide.me is a great choice for torrenting due to its reliable upload and download speeds. However, not all of its servers allow torrenting, but this shouldn’t give you much concern as most of the servers are compatible with torrenting. Fortunately, the Hide.me app has some valuable indicators that can help you determine which servers are not compatible with torrenting.

Hide.me’s kill switch is another amazing addition to the VPN’s features. It protects your original IP address from exposure should in case your VPN connection drops for any reason.

Hide.me employs a very strict zero-logs policy. The user logs it maintains cannot be used to personally trace your location or identify you; they are only kept for troubleshooting purposes and erased every few hours. In fact, Hide.me reassures its users in its privacy policy which says that the technical backend makes logging your online activity ‘impossible’.

Keep in mind that Hide.me logs the volume of web traffic for a user per month, in order to maintain its high-quality service and properly bill customers on data-capped subscriptions. But none of this data can be linked to you in any way, and upon request, this data can be erased from the Hide.me database.

•  Jurisdiction

Hide.me is owned and managed by eVenture Limited – a Malaysia-based company, which is out of the reach of data retention laws in the US and EU. Malaysian laws do not require VPN services to store logs related to the online of its users. Hide.me takes a further step, assuring its users that if these laws ever change, they will relocate their headquarters to a safer jurisdiction or shut down the service.

Hide.me will not be able provide any data that can help trace a customer’s identity even if there is a valid court order, as they do not have any stored information to hand over. Privacy-wise, we do not think Hide.me users should have any cause for concern.

Encryption and Security: Excellent Choice for Security and Privacy

Some of Hide.me’s security features include:

•  Encryption: AES-256
•  Protocol: OpenVPN (TCP/UDP); L2TP/IPsec; SSTP; IKEv2/IPsec; SSTP
•  Security: DNS leak blocking; VPN kill switch; IPV6 leak blocking; first-party DNS; supports TCP port 443
•  Advanced features: Split tunneling; SOCKS

If you are a privacy-conscious internet user, then Hide.me is an excellent option. It uses OpenVPN protocol, which is an ultra-secure protocol, and its encryption method is the ‘impenetrable’ AES-256 cipher.

Hide.me has loads of advanced privacy features, including a VPN kill switch that masks original IP addresses from exposure, built-in protection against DNS leaks to hide your online activity from your ISP, and zero-log DNS servers. Hide.me also has other important features like port randomization and split tunneling, which allows users select the apps that are and aren’t routed via the VPN connection. All of these features in addition to Hide.me’s strong privacy policy makes the provider one of the best VPN services in terms of privacy today.

Hide.me’s apps are well designed with loads of features, including a kill switch. The main screen has a simple on/off button, with your new IP address and chosen location. The ‘change location’ option on the screen also comes in handy as you can easily switch locations and access location-specific content.

Hide.me’s customer support is decent at best. Though the response is usually prompt, users are always referred to a support page which lacks the know-how needed to solve technical issues. But you can still find answers to complex problems on the FAQs page where screenshots and videos would be used to guide you.

Hide.me has free and premium subscription plans. Like most VPN services out there, the longer your subscription plan, the lower the monthly cost for you. The monthly plan is the most expensive at $12.99 but the two-year plan costs only $4.61 per month. Other VPN providers like NordVPN, CyberGhost and PrivateVPN offer lower rates for their longer subscription plans, but we would say Hide.me is still affordable.

Hide.me accepts payment through the regular payment channels, and a lot more. In fact, users have 80 anonymous payment options to choose from. Some of these options include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, ZenCash, NEO, Verge, and Monero. This gives users loads of options if they are seeking privacy-friendly ways to subscribe to Hide.me.

Hide.me offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, but you can only receive refunds if they have “not consumed a significant amount of your transfer data”. Hide.me does not breakdown the specifics of this statement, and when we asked, we were told that Hide.me retains “the right to evaluate edge cases where we see that user has consumed incredibly massive amount of data” in short period of time.” Hide.me did not give us a data-cap nor did they explain what they consider “a short period of time”.

The Hide.me free plan is especially helpful as they do not require any payment details. So you can test the VPN service before subscribing to a plan.